Plants 30-80 cm. Leaves: pale green, somewhat glaucous, basal usually persistent at flowering, 5-50 mm wide, entire or serrulate (1-5 teeth per side distally); mid cauline 7-28 mm wide, not crowded, not stiff, glabrous. 2n = 18.

Flowering Sep. Prairies and pine forests, sandy soils; 1300-1500+ m; Colo., Nebr., N.Mex., Okla., S.Dak., Wyo.

Subspecies pallida is an eastern woodland-prairie relict (W. A. Weber 1990), occurring in the Black Hills of South Dakota and adjacent Wyoming, the eastern foothills of the Colorado Front Range, and in a few scattered locations southeast to the New Mexico-Oklahoma border area. It is usually much shorter (20-80 cm) than is typical for the species, the array representing about half the height of the shoot. The leaves are much less crowded than those of var. rigidiuscula. A few plants similar in appearance to subsp. pallida, but taller, have been seen in the Carolinas and Tennessee; they belong in var. speciosa.